The Pacific Crest Trail, which intersects the Sentenac Birding Trail, heads back west through the cottonwoods toward Granite Mountain. Priscilla Lister

Priscilla Lister

The Sentenac Birding Trail in Anza-Borrego’s Scissors Crossing area is a desert wonderland of unusual plants, birds and wildlife.

It’s a desert transition area that sits at nearly 3,000 feet up, centered on San Felipe Creek, making for a riparian area that mixes low-desert and high-desert plants that normally attract a variety of birds.

The trail crosses Sentenac Cienega, or Sentenac Marsh, which connects to Sentenac Canyon, both near the historical Scissors Crossing where state Route 78 intersects with county Route S2.

It’s an easy loop trail of about 1.4 miles through a remarkably wet area for the desert. This trail also intersects with the Pacific Crest Trail that passes through here.

I began by exploring the PCT for about a mile on the west side of S2. The PCT parallels S2 for a half-mile or so before it heads west to climb the lower northeastern flanks of 5,633-foot-high Granite Mountain. The remarkable thing about this segment of the PCT, I thought, was the variety of cactus in this area.

I spotted several kinds of cholla, including jumping cholla and snake cholla, both of which should bloom in spring with yellow flowers; hedgehog cactus, which looks like clusters of small barrel cactus featuring bright magenta blooms; fish-hook cactus with its mounds of columns that sport tiny, hooked spines and the smallest (red and white) blooms of any local cactus, according to James Lightner’s “San Diego County Native Plants.” I also saw beavertail cactus with the flat paddles that brighten the landscape in spring with bright fuchsia flowers.

I turned back on the PCT to head toward the Sentenac Birding Trail, which lies across S2 on its east side. Begin on the PCT here, which heads into Sentenac Cienega and the San Felipe Creek area. In about a tenth of a mile, the PCT dips into a large wash, where you’ll see a sign for the Sentenac Birding Trail heading to the right.

The San Felipe Valley was part of an ancient trade route among Cahuilla, Kumeyaay, Kamia and Luiseno people, according to Lowell and Diana Lindsay’s book, “The Anza-Borrego Desert Region.” The Butterfield Overland Mail route had a San Felipe Station at Scissors Crossing near here from 1858 to 1861.

Sentenac Cienega and Sentenac Canyon were named for Paul Sentenac, a Frenchman who homesteaded 160 acres here in the 1880s, where he built a stone cabin “atop the rocky little hill at the mouth of Sentenac Canyon,” write the Lindsays. Sentenac raised cattle, goats and sheep here.

From the start of the Sentenac Birding Trail, head south through lots of mesquite and catclaw, both of which can prick you with their sharp thorns. Follow the wooden posts that mark the trail to stay on course — if you think you’ve lost it, just look for one of those posts ahead.

In a little more than a half-mile, the trail loops to head back north, this time heading into a remarkably tall grouping of cottonwood trees along the creek.

I saw few birds, but perhaps mid-February is too early for the spring migration that takes place closer to April and May, while the wildflowers are probably blooming here by mid- to late March.